A few weeks ago, I made some very special cupcakes. After years with our dog, he was getting very sick and it was time for him to leave us. Because I show love through my baking, my sister and I made him these pink lemonade cupcakes as a special treat before we went to the vet. Read on – there are pictures of a dog eating a cupcake at the end of this post!

 

Pink lemonade cake mix fancied up with some sour cream, lemon pudding mix, and fresh lemon zest. 

 

Fluffy meringue frosting courtesy of Martha Stewart’s 7-minute frosting recipe. 

 

Which, by the way, took much longer than 7 minutes to make.  

 

My sister and I took turns frosting the cupcakes.  I piled the frosting on high while she took a more creative approach.

In this smiley face cupcake you can see the lemon curd added to the centers to give them a nice punch.

They were very moist and tasty, super lemony, and just the right amount of fancy. We hit them with a blowtorch for the brown color and toasty flavor. For the record, blowtorch + paper cupcake liners make for a volatile situation…literally.

And of course, Strider loved them too.

After dinner we all got ready to feed him his cupcake. We took off the cupcake liner and put down the plate…

 

Making sure to lick up every last drop of meringue.